Looking Back: 3/17

Published: Monday, March 18, 2013 at 3:30 a.m.

Last Modified: Sunday, March 17, 2013 at 11:16 p.m.

50 years ago this week

University of Alabama football coach Paul W. “Bear” Bryant announced that he had taken a lie detector test to assure his friends of the truth of his denial of charges in a Saturday Evening Post story titled “The Story of a College Football Fix,” in which the magazine alleged that Bryant and Georgia coach Wally Butts rigged Alabama’s 35-0 football victory over Georgia the previous fall.

All-American center Lee Roy Jordan said Alabama’s football team won over Georgia because of quarterback Joe Namath’s passing and not because of any alleged collusion between coaches. “Joe just ate them up with his passing,” he said.

Members of the Tuscaloosa County Board of Revenue looked with favor upon a new plan for the continued operation of Oak Hill Rest Home that provided care for welfare patients. The state had served notice that it would discontinue the skilled nursing rating unless new buildings were provided. The home was located at the old county alms house property on Hargrove Road.

Bill Shamblin Jr. of Northport was elected governor of the 15th Annual YMCA Alabama Youth Legislature in Montgomery.

Mrs. Jamie O. Banks, wife of a prominent Eutaw businessman and land owner, was missing and feared dead after fire destroyed the Banks’ two-story home.

25 years ago this week

A committee was being formed to study the feasibility of building a civic center in Tuscaloosa. One possible site would be the city-owned block on the northwest corner of University Boulevard and Greensboro Avenue.

Fru-Con Construction Corp. Of Missouri would open an office in Northport to begin building the new Oliver Lock and Dam on the Black Warrior River.

An AIDS education center was opened in West End to provide information to local youths.

10 years ago this week

Fans in Fayette were torn between supporting favorite son, former Alabama Crimson Tide player and Indiana coach Mike Davis, and supporting Alabama basketball as the two schools faced off in the NCAA basketball tournament.

The Northport City Council hired a firm to study the use of one-time fees for water and sewer tie-ins for new residential and commercial developments as an alternative to raising rates.

The trial began of Rodney Blake Trammell, accused of manslaughter in the stabbing death of Christopher Junkin after an argument that began at the Jupiter Bar and Grill on the Strip. Judge John England declared a mistrial later in the week when the jury could not reach a verdict.

Robert Shelton, one of the central leaders in the resurgence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s, died at 73.

HealthSouth, the nation’s largest chain of rehabilitation hospitals was accused of sweeping accounting fraud stretching back almost to the company’s inception. The Securities and Exchange Commission accused HealthSouth and Richard M. Scrushy of falsifying profits and assets for decades in a scheme to delude Wall Street investors and protect Scrushy’s own large holdings of HealthSouth stock.

The City Council denied the license application for the downtown bar The Chukker to become a membership club when its application did not comply with state statutes.

Del Gatto, owner and founder of Nick’s Original Filet House on U.S. Hwy. 11/43 that opened in 1955, died at 94.

Five years ago this week

Deontay Wilder battled back in the final round of tournament semifinals to win a bout over Rafael Lima of Brazil and win a spot on the 2008 U.S. Olympic boxing team headed to Bejing for the summer Olympic Games.

The University of Alabama hired a consultant to determine the scope of a new facility that would be at Bryce Hospital if the Bryce campus was sold to UA.

Former Hale County circuit clerk Gay Nell Tinker was jailed and charged with 13 felony charges relating to voter fraud in that county.

Outspoken Stillman professor Ekow Hayford was suspended and banned from campus in a move that he claimed was retaliation for his criticisms published in The Tuscaloosa News. A spokeswoman for the college denied that.

Alabama football coach Nick Saban’s staff got pay raises of 11 percent. As a group the on-field assistants would make $2.5 million this season.

One year ago this week

La Rocca Nursing Home, which was damaged beyond repair in the April 27, 2011, tornado, planned to build a 75-bed, $10-million nursing home at Capstone Village, a retirement community on the eastern edge of the University of Alabama campus.

One of Tuscaloosa’s oldest service clubs, the Pilot Club, celebrated its 90th anniversary.

In anticipation of federal funds to help clean Forest Lake, the city lowered the water level for a survey of the storm debris that remained in it.

The Northport City Council hired a consulting firm to conduct an operational audit of the Northport Police Department. Police Chief Robert Green would be on paid leave until the audit was completed.

The Tuscaloosa News executive editor Doug Ray left for a job as the executive editor of The Gainesville Sun and The Ocala Star-Banner in Florida.

The 2011 BCS trophy arrived at the Bryant Museum.

Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz and former New York Giants coach Bill Parcells were in Tuscaloosa to participate in Alabama coach Nick Saban’s annual coaching clinic.

A groundbreaking was held for Lear Corp, the newest manufacturer to join Tuscaloosa County’s growing automotive industry. The company will make seats and seat components for the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance.

Park of Mill Creek Avenue would be renamed to honor police officer Trevor Scott Phillips who was killed while escorting a funeral.

Compiled by retired news librarian Betty Slowe.

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